[XeTeX] Opentype fonts with vrt2 + linux

[Jonathan Kew]

On 13 Jan 2008, at 3:02 pm, Wilfred van Rooijen wrote:

> Hello JK,
>
> This is where we run into murky waters. After the
> latest Gentoo packages are installed:
>
> Compiled with ICU version 3.4 [with modifications for
> XeTeX]
> Compiled with zlib version 1.2.3; using 1.2.3
> Compiled with FreeType2 version 2.2.1; using 2.2.1
> Compiled with fontconfig version 2.2.1; using 2.5.0
> Compiled with libpng version 1.2.15; using 1.2.15
> Compiled with xpdf version 3.01
>
> Note that fontconfig has been updated to 2.5.0.
>
> For freetype:
>
> rooijen at love206a-rooijen ~/Xelatex/Japanese $
> freetype-config --version
> 9.16.3
>
> rooijen at love206a-rooijen ~/Xelatex/Japanese $
> freetype-config --ftversion
> 2.3.5
>
> The 2.3.5 is the only version installed in my system,
> according to gentoo emerge. I used 'locate freetype'
> to find out more, there seems to be only one version.
> Where / how does xetex think it has freetype 2.2.1?

Hmm.... I guess this means that the xetex binary was static-linked  
with freetype 2.2.1, so it is independent of the library version  
installed on your system.

To confirm the situation, are you running binaries that come directly  
from the TeX Live DVD, or from Gentoo packages of TeX Live? The TeX  
Live distribution uses static linking wherever possible (virtually  
all the libraries except fontconfig) for maximum portability, while  
distro-based packages typically use dynamic linking so that library  
updates can be applied centrally for all programs using the lib.

So to be able to update the Freetype version used by xetex, I think  
you'd need to either rebuild it locally, or use a Gentoo port that is  
dynamically linked instead of the generic TeX Live version.

JK